It rubbed a lot of Vikings fans, and reportedly some from within the organization, the wrong way when seventh round pick Mickey Shuler was claimed by Miami off of waivers last season.
At the time, the Vikings front office wanted to retain the young tight end and instead jettison veteran Jeff Dugan, but Brad Childress overruled that decision and Shuler was subject to waivers.
The Dolphins cut Shuler prior to the 2011 regular season. The Bengals claimed him off of waivers, but he failed his physical and has remained unsigned for the entirety of this season.
Shuler’s phone rang last week and the Saints gave him a workout.
This week, however, the Vikings have their guy back as the Penn State tight end agreed to terms and has joined Minnesota’s practice squad.
An interesting note here is that the Vikings activated tight end Allen Reisner from the practice squad and cut receiver Stephen Burton. It was expected that Burton would land back on the practice squad, but that turned out to be false, and the Vikings have instead opted to add Shuler.
Two of the teams veteran tight ends, Visanthe Shiancoe and Jim Kleinsasser, are set to see their contracts expire after this season so it makes sense that the front office wants to load up on youthful options in the event that neither are retained.